Using Nasa’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (Tess) to observe the phenomenon in the white dwarf binary system, TW Pictoris, which is found about 1,400 light years from Earth.
The Durham University researchers hope the discovery will help them learn more about the physics behind accretion – where objects like black holes, white dwarfs and neutron stars feed on surrounding material from neighbouring stars. Nasa’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (Tess) is moved inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida (Nasa/Frankie Martin)īecause the brightness of an accreting white dwarf is affected by the amount of surrounding material it feeds on, the researchers suggest something is interfering with its food supply. It was seen to lose brightness in 30 minutes, a process only previously seen to occur in accreting white dwarfs over a period of several days to months. The white dwarf observed by researchers is known to be accreting, or feeding, from an orbiting companion star. They are around the size of the Earth, but have a mass closer to that of the Sun. White dwarfs are what most stars become after they have burned off the hydrogen that fuels them. A planet-hunting satellite has allowed astronomers to see a white dwarf abruptly switching on and off for the first time.
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